The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

If there were ever any doubts that Alexa isn't our child, let the following pictures dispel them.
The intensity! Don't break her focus or she'll have to start all over!!!

Just look at the joy she gets from eating those delicious, totally unhealthy, ridiculously processed cheese balls. I'm sure my mom would agree that she's seen that joy before. :)

And the weirdness. Of course she had to inherit a healthy dose of that. I mean, look at me and Mike! How could she be normal? By the way, she also enjoyed using the strainer as a hat, but once she figured out the mask, she found it much funnier and so wouldn't do that hat again for a picture.

A Book Review: The Bridge of Peace

So, I don't know how many of you have heard of this thing called Blogging for Books. It's pretty sweet, I have to tell ya. You sign up on their website and fill in a little thing about what types of books you like and based on that they give you a list of books that you can choose from. You choose a book, they send it to you for FREE and then you just have to read it and write a review on it! I found out about this from an old friend (Thanks Angela :)) and just read my first book. I'll be honest, I was really skeptical because apparently the site was having problems the day that I chose my book, so all my choices were Amish! But it turned out really, really well.

The Bridge of Peace by Cindy Woodsmall is an engaging story that has every aspect a person might want in a book. There are several story lines happening that are all interconnected in some way. It is the story of an Amish community and some problems that specific people have in it. The main character, Lena, is a young Amish school teacher that has a large birthmark on her face that she feels holds her back from the life that she really wants. She loves her job, but from it incurred the wrath of an unstable man. Lena's childhood friend, Grey, suffers from an unhappy marriage in a religion that has little to no flexibility. Grey's work partner is engaged to a woman that is joining the religion for him so that they can be married, and she struggles to leave everything from her former life behind. She, in turn, helps two women who run a bakery. One of these women was engaged to the other's son when he ran off and left them both.

This book was really good, full of good old-fashioned drama. It was easy to relate to because while Lena has a mark on her face that holds her back, I think everyone has something about themselves, whether it's visible or not, that they feel has that effect on them. I would highly recommend this book to any women (men might find it a little too romantic) even if she has no knowledge or interest in Amish life.

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review)

Stats & Christmas

So we finally got Alexa in for her 12 month appointment, so here are her stats:
19 lbs 11 oz -> 25 %
30.5 in -> 75%
So she's still our tall skinny baby!

Now, here are some pictures of Christmas morning at our house. The major "Christmas" happened at Mike's parents house, but I don't have pics of that yet.

Mike and I helped Alexa open some presents...
She did some (kinda) on her own...

Enjoying the spoils in her new Tinkerbell pjs...

I believe it was Christmas Eve when Mike called me right after he left for work and told me to look out the window. It was a minute or so before this truck rolled into sight.

It was all decked out! It had the moving reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh, a family of snowmen, a life size nativity, and eeeeverything was covered in lights. It stayed outside the house for about 20 minutes, and all the neighbors came out with their kids to take pictures with/ on it. The sleigh was a real sleigh that they covered in lights, so people could actually get in it. It was pretty cool!

(Sorry about the poor lighting and resolution, I took the video on my phone...)

Where has this year gone? In the beginning of 2010, Alexa was a newborn. By the end of it, she's a full blown toddler! When did a year become so darn short??? I remember back in the day it took foreeever to get back around to Christmas time, or my birthday, or summer vacation. Now, when I want to go slowly, it flies by!

This year was amazing though. It marked our 3rd year of marriage, Alexa's first birthday, graduation, moving, travelling, new jobs, some really hard times, and some really great times. I think my favorite memory was when Mike. Alexa and I were driving the moving truck to Oregon and stopped at the top of some mountain in middle of the night. It was kind of scary because it was so dark that someone could have been standing right next to you and you wouldn't have seen them. But we stopped, got out of the truck and looked up. I have NEVER seen that many stars in my life. When I was in high school I took astronomy and in our planetarium sometimes the teacher would turn off "city lights" to make the constellations harder to see and planets easier to see. On the top of that mountain, that's what the sky looked like. It was beautiful.

What are your favorite memories? (You don't have to share, I'm sure some are personal)

Here's to a new year, and many new memories!